07.08.2001
New MessagEase technology Speeds Up mobile text messaging
Belmont, CA, August 7, 2001
EXideas (http://www.exideas.com) a Silicon Valley company, has filed for a patent for a novel system that significantly speeds up text entry on cell phones, remote controllers, PDA's and other mobile devices. This system, called MessagEase, uses only the 12 numeric keys found on most mobile devices. It is intuitive, easy to learn, and allows the entry of all special characters (not just letters and numbers) using a unified, simple, and consistent method. MessagEase fosters one-handed touch typing when a full QWERTY keyboard cannot be used, making it ideal for mobile Short Message Service (SMS) and Instant Messaging (IM) on mobile devices.
If you've ever tried to enter text into your cell phone or edit your phone book entries on it, you know how difficult and frustrating the "tap" dancing on those keys can be. Some companies, like Tegic Communications, have come up with dictionary-based disambiguation systems that try to predict the words to be typed and let the users choose among the likely choices. But jargon, abbreviation, and foreign words spell trouble for these dictionary-based systems, and if you want to use a different language, you need to load the corresponding dictionary. You also have to watch the screen at all times to select among choices given to you by the software.
In contrast, MessagEase requires no dictionary, hence its code is quite compact and runs fast. You can switch languages or even mix them. You can also use jargon or slang with no impact on the speed of the system.
Unlike the present multi-tap system in wide-use on cell phones, MessagEase is timing independent: you can type as fast as you want, without having to wait for the system to catch up. The maximum speed achievable by MessagEase based on the application of Fitts' law (an established technique to measure text entry speed) is about 30 WPM, 31% better than that of current multi-tap system.
MessagEase achieves its remarkable speed by designing keys based on letter-frequency di-grams and has been further optimized through exhaustive simulation. This compact text entry system can be used in several key mobile applications: Cell phones, two-way pagers, and PDA's are the obvious applications. But other beneficiaries are touch-screen/tablet computers, interactive-TVs (and their remote controllers) and wearable computers. In fact any device with the ubiquitous numeric key pad can be enhanced by including MessagEase and giving it full-text entry capability.
MessagEase is fully designed and optimized; it is ready for licensing and implementation into any device requiring text entry. More information about MessagEase and simulations showing its performance can be found at http://www.exideas.com.
